Following discussions at UKIO in 2024, two members of the SoR have established a peer-led network of radiographers in senior strategic roles to increase the profession’s visibility.
Co‑chairs of the Senior Strategic Leadership Special Interest Group (SSL SIG) Dr Janice St John‑Matthews and Dr Gareth Hill wanted to tackle the notable lack of representation of radiography in the most senior Allied Health Professional (AHP) roles, despite being one of the largest AHP professions in the UK.
With the support of the SoR, they sought to create visibility, connection and a collective voice for radiographers leading at senior strategic levels, and have been running the SIG since early 2025.
Lived experience
The SSL‑SIG is a peer‑led network of professionally registered Diagnostic and Therapeutic Radiographers working in very senior strategic roles across the NHS, government, and arm’s length bodies.
Intentionally grassroots, profession‑specific and strategic in its ambition, the group’s members represent a wide range of posts across the UK, forming a space where senior strategic radiographer leaders can connect, share intelligence, and collectively strengthen the profession’s visibility and impact at the highest levels of decision‑making.
Leadership development opportunities have long been fragmented and inconsistent, creating a system where radiographers with the capability to lead at a strategic level struggle to access the pathways needed to get there, Janice and Gareth explained.
For the pair, this wasn’t just an abstract problem, but a lived experience.
Visibility, connection and a collective voice
Janice moved through clinical, education and workforce leadership into national strategy and policy multiprofessional roles in England before moving more recently to Wales, while Gareth advanced from operational leadership of oncology services to strategic multiprofessional national positions in Scotland.
Both recognised that the real barrier was not a lack of ambition or capability in the radiography workforce, but visibility. With so few radiographers occupying very senior strategic posts, the message was "unmistakable".
"You cannot be what you cannot see," Janice said.
A chance conversation at UKIO 2024 in Liverpool quickly turned into a shared mission: to build something “from the ground up” that would create visibility, connection and a collective voice for radiographers leading at these levels.
The SSL‑SIG’s purpose, as laid out by Janice and Gareth, is to:
- Build a connected senior strategic leadership community for radiographers in senior strategic roles, beyond that of service manager level.
- Share intelligence, insight and expertise across national/four-nations programmes and policy areas.
- Support other radiographers on this journey.
- Champion the radiography profession within wider health and care system transformation.
- Support radiographers to progress to board level and chief executive post.
At its core, it is important to showcase how radiographers’ values of empathy, precision and patient‑centred thinking are seen as essential to system‑wide transformation, they added.
Over the course of the coming year, they hope to raise the profile of the SIG, create a library of member biographies, start ongoing conversations around group membership criteria, and continue to offer peer support through informative group sessions.
Find out more about the Senior Strategic Leadership Special Interest Group here.
(Image: GettyImages)